A prominent professor of AI has some advice for Elon Musk and other AI leaders struggling to sell Americans on data centers: Try empathy.
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Anjney Midha, a Stanford University professor teaching a viral AI infrastructure course, said that part of the reason local communities are organizing to prevent new data centers is the lack of transparency around their impacts and intended use.
He said these communities will cause major problems if tech leaders don’t come across as “empathetic” and listen to them.
“These are human beings,” Midha said on Alex Heath’s “Access” podcast on Thursday. “I can tell you communities around America are not happy.”
Data centers have become a major issue for many Americans. While tech companies — like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google — need data centers to power their AI products, many everyday Americans say the benefits don’t outweigh the drawbacks.
Rising utility costs are one major concern. A new report this week from the Pew Research Center said 43% of survey respondents believed data center energy use had driven up their bills. Environmental damage, increased noise, and an overall drop in quality of life are also points of contention.
Some legislators have also taken aim at data centers, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who proposed a federal moratorium on new data center development. Some states, including Maine, are also considering moratoriums.
“My view is that if it’s not legible to the public that these data centers and the infrastructure required to unblock this kind of frontier technology progress are serving their benefit, then it’s not going to work out,” Midha said.
He said the discourse around data centers has split into two camps: those who want to accelerate construction and those who want to halt AI development altogether. Neither, he said, is the optimal viewpoint.
“Let’s scale infrastructure optimally while making sure we listen to the concerns that are substantive of local communities,” Midha said.
Midha said that companies being transparent with communities about the intentions and impacts of data centers could help bridge the gap. He referenced the nutrition labels on juice bottles and said data centers could try a similar approach.
“That is the level at which communities will want clarity before they provide strong enough vocal enough support for data centers,” he said.
